Hollister native returns as organization’s director
Jennifer Laine, a Hollister native who teaches modern dance at
the San Benito Dance Academy, is the new executive director of the
San Benito County Arts Council.
”
I grew up in a family of artists and creative types,
”
she said.
Laine took on the role at the beginning of September after
former executive director Stephanie Hicks left the position to take
a job at the Community Foundation for San Benito County. Laine has
been using her first few weeks on the job to meet with board
members of the Arts Council.
Hollister native returns as organization’s director
Jennifer Laine, a Hollister native who teaches modern dance at the San Benito Dance Academy, is the new executive director of the San Benito County Arts Council.
“I grew up in a family of artists and creative types,” she said.
Laine took on the role at the beginning of September after former executive director Stephanie Hicks left the position to take a job at the Community Foundation for San Benito County. Laine has been using her first few weeks on the job to meet with board members of the Arts Council.
“The first thing an executive director needs is to be a good organizer,” she said, adding that her background in art helps her to relate to the artists with whom she will work. “We have a common language even though we work in different media.”
When asking the board members what they want to see in the coming year, Laine heard a common theme.
Building a stable organization
“The big thing is they want stabilization,” she said, “stable funding, a stable organization.”
For the next year, she said her goal is not to add new programming but to “make sure we have a strong, viable organization.”
The board is recruiting for two new members, as well as volunteers. Anyone interested in serving on the board can contact Laine for more information.
The Arts Council receives funding from the California Arts Council and the Community Foundation.
“Stephanie (Hicks) did a really good job,” Laine said. “We are lucky she is at Community Foundation because she will have the arts in mind.
One of Laine’s focuses will be to increase visibility of the Arts Council and grow membership.
“I want to reach out to the community and encourage people to become part of it,” she said. “There are benefits and increased visibility.”
She will also be looking to create partnerships with local businesses to benefit such programs as the Artists in the Schools program, one of the main programs the Arts Council coordinates. They also put on the Open Studios Tour each spring, a summer concert and collaborate with CMAP on a student film festival.
Laine said the programs are meant to support artists all around the county.
This year the Artists in the Schools program will work with 13 elementary schools. Last year’s programs included artists in residence as well as 12-week programs that brought a variety of artists into the classroom for interdisciplinary lectures that meet state curriculum standards. At the Pinnacle Community School at the juvenile hall, Arturo Rosette is working with the youth on a mural. A meeting is scheduled Oct. 7, at the Blak Sage Gallery, for artists interested in participating in the Artists in the Schools this year.
“Emiliano Valdez is really the backbone [of Artists in the Schools,]” she said “He has so much energy and is really organized. He’s coordinating it all, reaching out to all the principals.”
A connection with dance
Though she grew up around art with mother Kathleen Sheridan and stepfather Kent Child, both active artists, her own experience as an artist began after she went to college.
“When I got to college, I saw modern dance and I told myself that was something I have to do,” she said.
In high school, her experience with dance was limited to cheerleading. She noted how there are several dance studios in town now for students who are interested in taking classes. It wasn’t until college, where she was an art history major at the University of California, Santa Cruz, that her horizon expanded as she started taking modern dance, sometimes called contemporary, and ballet classes. She worked as a dancer for the Mel Wong Dance Company from 1999 to 2000. Wong is a choreographer who trained with Merce Cunningham.
“There is one common thread that I continued to dance whether I was in San Francisco or Germany,” she said. “I took dance classes or taught them.”
Laine is now teaching modern dance at the San Benito Dance Academy, Mondays from 6 to 7:30 p.m. She said her class is small, but she hopes to add more students.
After college, she spent time working overseas and in the Bay Area.
“Even though I have a background in art, I also was always interested in the world,” she said. “In living in different countries, not just traveling there.”
She lived in Japan for a year, teaching English and serving as a representative for the Sister City Organization. She also taught general and business English in Germany before settling back in the Bay Area.
She later took a position as the coordinator of the Office for International Visitors at the Bechtel International Center, at Stanford University.
“They foster international exchanges,” she said.
During her tenure with the Bechtel International Center, she had a chance to work with journalists, school administrators and people in leadership positions from countries all around the world. She said embassies overseas would recruit people who would benefit from visiting the United States.
“The topics were totally across the spectrum,” she said. “America is colored in a specific way so the organization working here [tried to change that.]”
A family grows overseas
Though she “really loved this job,” she decided to move to Germany when her huband, who is a German citizen, got a job there. They met when she was visiting Germany with her sister, when Laine was 22. They met at a New Year’s Eve Party and Laine flew back to Japan the next day. He e-mailed her and asked to visit. They dated long distance before getting married.
In Germany, she enrolled at the University of Leipzig, where she got her master of arts degree in global studies in 2009.
“We stayed for five years,” she said. “The original plan was to stay for two, but two turned into five.”
Their family grew during the time in Europe, as they had two children.
“I finished my thesis six weeks before giving birth to my second child,” she said. “I figured I had to get it done.”
Eight months ago, she and her family decided to move back to California.
“I have a big family in Hollister and the Bay Area,” she said. “I wanted to be back. We went with two suitcases and came back with two kids. We had a house full of stuff to get rid of, in the snow.”
With a 3-year-old and 1-year-old at home, Laine said the part-time job with the Arts Council is ideal for her.
“I didn’t know if we would be able to stay in Hollister so we really lucked out,” she said.
In the coming months, Laine said her focus as executive director will be on organizing and fundraising, but she is looking forward to the events in the spring and summer.
“I see art not as something superfluous,” she said. “It has a purpose. It brings people out of the every day.”
Artists in the Schools workshop
The San Benito Arts Council is kicking off the annual Artists in the Schools program for 2010-11 with an informational workshop, Oct. 7, at 6 p.m., at the Blak Sage Gallery, 727 San Benito St., in Hollister. The workshop is for artists working in all types of media who are interested in learning more about the program. The two-hour event will address how artists can join the online artists-in-the-schools directory, learn about developing arts-based curriculum and more. The meeting is free and open to all artists.
The program is made possible through the Community Foundation for San Benito County and the California Arts Council. It serves 13 elementary schools in San Benito County by providing hands-on arts education in the classroom as well as cultural assemblies. Previous participants include painter Shannon Grissom, ceramicist Louise Roy, ZunZun and members of El Teatro Campesino.
The Arts Council is also recruiting two board members as well as volunteers.
For more information or to RSVP to the meeting, contact Jennifer Laine at 636-2787 or e-mail in**@sa***********.org.
